Maybe Incentives Would Work?
For as long as I can remember, we [largely the peoples of most western, democratic countries] have been told that "market forces" and "commercial competition" are the best, most effective and efficient means of driving up standards and driving down costs.
Yet here is another example of a spectacular failure in this regard. There could be many causes : inept regulator, collusion, corruption, a cartel of major providers, etc, etc. Frankly, it doesn't matter what it is.
What matters is that the controls, safeguards and processes intended to protect consumers are clearly not working. That's bad enough, but even worse, nobody in authority is doing anything about it. Where is Ofcom through all this?
When the 5G spectrum comes up for auction, we can anticipate that all existing providers will bid for a slice of the service, because they want to grab the profits on offer from the big metropolitan hubs such as London, Manchester, Birmingham, Liverpool, Southampton and so on. But they won't be interested in outlying regions with fewer clients. This is what the Regulator is supposed to be dealing with - to protect those of us who live in rural areas so that the big corporations don't cherry-pick the profits and leave everyone else. Buses, supermarkets, wired broadband, mobile phones.
So what we need - what we have every right to expect - is for OfCom to refuse to grant 5G licenses to any provider that doesn't meet basic minimum criteria for coverage and quality for the existing services.
Oh, wait. That's too sensible. Sorry, forgot.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
